Generation Cyb

By Jonathan Sellars

It’s now a well known fact that Maestros were being produced again in the UK well after the last examples left Rover’s Cowley plant. All of a sudden R, S and T registered Maestros started appearing on the roads causing much interest among enthusiasts in particular. In spring 1999 we payed a visit to the manufacturer to find out more…

The original plan was that we’d get the pleasure of a ride in one of the new cars for purposes of comparison with it’s predecessor, but unfortunately there were no cars available and a black, slightly modified Ford Orion turned up at the station instead (a couple of hours later than planned, too). However this was to be the only real dissapointment of the day, other than the weather, and overall our impressions were favourable. The ‘factory’ near Ledbury in Herefordshire was quite a contrast with the Maestro’s original place of manufacture and more of a basically equipped workshop in a small purpose-built warehouse at the back of the Parkway service station.

The cars were not actually being built from scratch but arrived at the factory in left hand drive form, where they were converted to RHD to make them suitable for British roads at the rate of about six cars per week. The repetitive process for each car quickly became familiar to the staff, a few of whom were busily completing conversion of a couple of red Maestros while we were there. The process of conversion basically involves stripping out the interior of each car, replacing the dash with a RHD version (after the wiring loom has been moved), and replacing the steering rack. After the converted cars had been cleaned up and tested they were put aside ready for collection by the customer.

Not only Maestro saloons but also vans were being built, although all of these had been completed by the time we visited. Unlike the saloons, Vans were built entirely from kits from the ground up. Evidence of this was in the form of a Clarke Strongarm lift at the back of the workshop used to lift the chassis during work before the wheels were fitted and the rolling shell lowered and built up from there. The average time taken to build a van was in the region of a week each, we were informed. Shelving dominated the walls down one side of the workshop piled high with all the various components that go together to form a Maestro van.

The common perception of where all these Maestros came from is usually “Bulgaria”, but in reality none of the vehicles built by the Parkway Service Station come from any further afield than a warehouse in Cowley! They were originally destined to be sent to Bulgaria but Rover’s deal quickly fell through when Daewoo began selling Nexias there at a lower price and interest dried up.

The venerable but well proven ‘A’ series engine lives on in the latest batch, their spec not being far removed from that of a 1.3 City with Clubman trim, so we’re not exactly looking at luxury travel. This combined with the incredible choice of three different body colours (white, red and navy) one would expect would lead to not very many sales at a time where most other new cars offer so much more. Not the case. The Maestro was at the time the cheapest new car available at £4995 and well documented in the press. Only the previous evening Top Gear did a feature on it (see elsewhere on this site). Manager Ian Yarmsley told us “the phone has been red hot. We can sell them as quickly as we build them.” In fact there was a very extensive waiting list at the time we visited, with several potential customers coming in to take a look throughout the afternoon.

So, there’s evidence that the Maestro is still very much alive and well. According to owners the new batch have given them little trouble in general. With the number of kits remaining to be completed standing at about 300 when we visited it’s likely that the production has been completed by this time, but to satisfy the numerous e-mails we get requesting it the numbner of the garage is 01531 636252. And don’t expect this to be the end of it… with Maestros, anything can happen!